15450/02TWO Pewsey parish councillors are threatening to resign in protest over a bid by Kennet District Council to introduce parking charges in the village.

The news also came out of the blue for district councillors Anne Hayhoe and Jerry Kunkler.

They were told this week the proposal for pay and display parking in Pewsey and Ludgershall would be discussed on Tuesday.

The news that Kennet is even considering introducing paid-for parking has upset parish councillors who said they had not been consulted.

Vice-chairman Phil Stevens and former chairman Colin Lampard said they would probably resign if the proposal goes ahead.

Coun Stevens said they believed Kennet was proposing to introduce charges in the central car park by the Bouverie Hall in Pewsey and also in the Hallgate House car park.

It is understood the car park by the Co-op is exempt because the shop has a 99 year lease on it from Kennet.

Coun Stevens said the parish council together with the businesses in the village had worked hard for years to try to promote Pewsey and encourage more people to use its shops.

"First of all Kennet says it wants to close our toilets and now it is talking of charging people to park," he said.

"If this goes ahead we might as well put up signs saying: Pewsey closed for business."

Coun Stevens, a councillor for more than 20 years, said: "If this goes ahead then I will resign.

"It looks as if we will end up with our public toilets taken away and if parking charges are foisted on us we will have no shoppers either."

Coun Lampard, the longest serving member of the parish council, said he had been told it was proposed to charge 30p an hour and £1.50 a day in the two car parks which would generate £19,000 a year for Kennet.

He said: "The sheer effrontery of Kennet in failing to consult even the local members beggars belief.

'The deliberate attempt to stifle public debate by allowing less than a week from the announcement to the decision being taken, makes local democracy a joke.

"What is the point of the dedicated volunteers on the parish council, and the planning partnership giving up their time to seek to re-generate the economy of Pewsey, let alone protect the existing businesses already surviving on a knife-edge with the high business rates?

"My initial reaction is that there is little point in me continuing to serve the community, which I have done for the last 38 years."

Coun Kunkler said: "The first I knew about this proposal was after the full council meeting at Kennet when I picked up the committee papers for the meeting on Tuesday.

"Four months ago the officers were asked to do a report on parking in Kennet but nothing specific was said about Pewsey.

"I am disgusted that while we in Pewsey are trying to regenerate the village, Kennet is trying to knock us back."

Caroline Dalrymple who runs an interior design business in the High Street and who has long championed the retention of businesses and services in the village, said she was staggered.

"This would be absolutely devastating for the village and its shops," she said.

With Kennet's support Pewsey has undergone one regeneration scheme five years ago to help stimulate trade in the village.

Currently Kennet is involved in another regeneration proposal to redevelop the area generally known as the Whatley's site stretching between the High Street and Broomcroft Road.

Parish councillors say they are angry that such positive efforts would now be undermined by parking charges.

"Kennet is pulling the rug from under the village" Coun Stevens said.